By hook or by crook we are leaving tomorrow morning. I hope. Later today Thomas the Swiss expert wants to go over our wiring for our Victron system so we go into the workshop one last time. This goddamned flashing red light hasn’t reappeared since he poked around Saturday evening and I am losing track of what is what but he’s the expert and he wants to poke around so who am I to disagree?
Layne and I were plotting our route to Buenos Aires and our general exit strategy when we heard a deep melodious note wafting across the campground Sunday afternoon. It was Wally (I had had to ask him his name directly). What I thought sounded like a euphonium was actually an alpenhorn, the communication device used before telephone lines were string between Swiss alpine villages. I faffed mightily to make the video. Then we all took turns peering at and blowing through the long Swiss wooden contraption.
I told Wally it was the most useless thing anyone had ever carried on an overland vehicle but he promised to hail me with it the next time we meet on the road then Layne said the next time I complain about crap she loads onboard she’ll remind me of Wally. His wife Connie helped put the thing to bed:
The German women Brigitte and Gertraut drive back into camp unexpectedly. They left a few days ago but after 600 kilometers (400 miles) their transmission transfer box started leaking oil again. They had been spending a few days exploring Paraguay’s eastern wilderness called the Chaco which we had hoped to explore on our way to Bolivia… maybe next year.
When I asked them if they had anything as useless as an alpenhorn on board they produced a collection of stuffed animals reproduced on the side of their Bremach truck.
Because they have four wheel drive they took off on the notorious backroads of the Chaco and the wilderness nearly left them stuck. It had been raining and they told a hair raising story of slipping and sliding through the mud barely able to keep control. 
They also told us if talking to the German Mennonites who have settled the region based on the town of Filadelfia a German speaking municipality. For a country that appears to be so small Filadelfia is 320 paved miles away. There is one paved road through the Chaco to Bolivia but it is a commitment to drive there and we still hope to do it next year after visiting Bolivia. 
Brigitte said it was an interesting place as the Mennonites claim to have integrated over the last century into Paraguay but she noted rather tartly they own and control everything and she chatted with them in German…I can’t wait to check it out myself. Meanwhile we have to go south to meet Therese and Bernard. 
So now is my time to try to explain for the electro- mechanical nerds what the consensus is on what has been happening with the red flashing low voltage light on our Victron Multiplus 3000 watt inverter. Everyone else feel free to skip this bit, please.
Step 1 - the installation. Everything installed and running.
Step 2 the Battery monitoring system box fails and the red light starts flashing. Adrián tries faffing around but can’t fix it so he replaces the BMS (battery monitoring system box).
BUT - he forgets to reset the lithium battery value (540 amps) in the inverter so it loses track of what the battery voltage should be. The light keeps flashing.
Step 3. The German victron guy remotely resets the battery value when he discovers it hasn’t been set. The red light keeps flashing.
Step 4 when Thomas the former Victron employee shows up he hits this secret reset button, the system is finally set up properly and the inverter resets now talking with proper values to the properly functioning BMS box. Problem solved.
That is the scenario Chris Layne and I have come up with after much discussion.
The belief is that once correctly set the system will subside into unnoticed proper functioning but it is damned fiddly. Webb Chiles says it’s not simple enough but he puts to sea in an uninsulated boat with no heating barely any cooking facilities and no headroom. I have a wife. Nuff sed.
A German couple showed up late Sunday on their way to Uruguay to ship their four wheel drive camper home. He addressed me in English as I took Rusty on his evening walk. We talked about travel and constant repairs and stuff. He said in Africa they used to say mechanics repair one thing, ignore the second issue and create the third problem. It is a saying I shall adopt. Though Chris here at Pequeña Baviera is the exception.
Fingers crossed for today.
